Conducting a Business Impact Analysis Guide

Objective

The purpose of this document is to help businesses conduct a Business Impact Analysis (BIA), which identifies the business’s critical processes, required resources for each process and the order in which processes need to be recovered. This document provides guidance on how to conduct the BIA, analyze the information that is collected, and report the findings of the assessment. The following documents are available to help the business complete the assessment:

Business Impact Analysis BIA Template (both short and long versions)

Application & Data Criticality Template

Final Business Unit Report Template

Final Executive Management Report Template

Examples of Impact

The Business Impact Analysis is only a part of the overall Business Assessment. A Business Assessment is separated into two constituents, Risk Assessment and Business Impact Analysis (BIA). The Risk Assessment is intended to measure present vulnerabilities to the business’s environment, while the Business Impact Analysis Plan evaluates probable loss that could result during a disaster. To maximize the Business Impact Analysis, a Risk Assessment should also be completed.

Table of Contents of Conducting a Business Impact Analysis

INTRODUCTION

Compliance Scope

BUSINESS IMPACT ANALYSIS

Objectives of the Business Impact Analysis Developing the Project Plan BIA Process Steps

PHASE ONE – PROJECT DEVELOPMENT

Scope Objectives and Deliverables Method of Collection Identify People Interview Order

Long Version Business Impact Analysis Template

Objectives

Due to HIPAA Security Rule regulations, the organization must implement Contingency Planning Practices to ensure the protection of ePHI (electronic Protected Health Information). In order to accomplish this undertaking, there are several steps that organization will be completing to identify critical business functions, processes, and applications that process ePHI and to understand the potential impact to the business if a disruptive event occurred.

The first step of implementing the Contingency Program for the organization is to conduct a Business Impact Analysis (BIA). This questionnaire will help each business unit identify their critical business functions and recovery requirements as well as estimating the impact of a disaster (or prolonged outage) to the business unit. Once the survey is completed, the BIA Project team will review the data, analyze and create a prioritized recovery strategy to present to senior management.

For the purpose of this BIA, answer each question based on the “worst-case scenario”. This means your workplace and all records; files and equipment in it are inaccessible. The priority of this questionnaire is to identify any business process or application that currently contains ePHI. However, please answer all questions regardless of ePHI status. By completing all questions to the best of your knowledge, a recovery strategy that best meets the need of the business can be established.

Some questions will be directly related to a specific process where as other questions are of the business unit in general. Some sections contain an additional “Notes” area to amplify or explain your responses. While this is not a requirement, it can be useful in helping the Project Team understand the nature of your business unit operations.

Final BIA Executive Management Report Templates w/ Charts

Executive Overview

Objectives

The intent of the Business Impact Analysis (BIA) was to help our organization identify which business units, operations, and processes are crucial to the survival of the business. The BIA has identified the time frames in which essential business operations must be restored to full functionality following a disruptive event. It has defined the business impact of not performing critical business operations based on a worst-case scenario. The BIA has also identified the resources required to resume business operations to a functioning level.

A worst-case scenario assumes that the physical infrastructure supporting each respective business unit has been destroyed and all records, equipment, etc are not accessible within 30 days.

The objectives for this BIA were:

Estimate the financial, customer/operation, and legal/regulatory impacts for each major business unit, assuming a worst-case scenario

Determine the estimated number of personnel required for recovery operations

Identify the critical business functions, business unit processes and the estimated Recovery Time Objective (RTO) for each business unit.

The RTO is the maximum allowable time a process can be inoperative following an outage / disruptive event.

These timeframes may have to be re-evaluated to meet the requirements of the Technology capabilities. If the capabilities of technology do not meet the requirements of the business unit, a gap exists. These gaps must be mitigated to prevent extended outages and impact to your organization.

Final Business Unit Report Template w/ Charts

The interview was conducted by <Enter the Name of Person(s) conducting interviews> on <Enter Month, Day, and Year>.

Overview of Business Unit (Department)

The <Enter Department Name> department is responsible for <enter responsibilities, duties, tasks. (Just provide a high-level overview of the department). Identify if the department does or does not provide direct patient care.

Business Processes

<Enter Process Names and put the RTO in ( ) >

<Enter Process Names and put the RTO in ( ) >

<Enter Process Names and put the RTO in ( ) >

Electronic Protected Health Information

<Identify the processes, applications, etc that contain ePHI>

<Identify the processes, applications, etc that contain ePHI>

Vendors

<Enter Vendor Name>

<Enter Vendor Name>

Internal Dependencies

<Enter Dependency and put RTO in ( ) >

<Enter Dependency and put RTO in ( ) >

External Dependencies

<Enter dependency and put RTO in ( ) >

<Enter dependency and put RTO in ( ) >

Applications

<Enter applications and put RTO in ( ) >

<Enter applications and put RTO in ( ) >

Business Impact Analysis Policy

Purpose:

The Business Impact Analysis (BIA) Policy document establishes the activities that need to be carried out by each Business Unit, Technology Unit, and Corporate Units (departments) within the organization.

All departments must utilize this methodology to identify the processes they perform, the required resources to perform those processes, the timeframes in which those processes need to be recovered, any supporting dependencies, resources, facilities, etc, and the potential financial, operational, and legal/regulatory impact for the processes.